In fact, Franti’s just published his second children’s book, “Where in the World is Away?”

“It’s about two kids who are trying to figure out where to throw their empty bottle,” Franti says.

He points out that seven years ago, he bought some land so that he could build a yoga studio on the Indonesian island of Bali. A beautiful place, but one nevertheless plagued by the inspiration for the book: mountains of garbage.

“In Bali, you don’t have waste management, where you put the trash can out and a truck comes by and takes your garbage away and you never see what happens to it,” Franti says. “In Bali, you have to deal with trash every day. You really see how things add up. Every scrap of paper.”

Fact: America’s No. 1 export today is garbage.

“And that’s out of the mouths of our politicians,” Franti wryly says after being presented with that unnerving factoid defining not only our ecology, but our economy. “Americans, we’re the biggest consumer nation, that would make sense.”

Michael Franti & Spearhead will perform at the Knitting Factory Concert House Sunday night, delivering a hip-hop, reggae, rock, funk, jazz, rap and goodwill. That last adjective did not always apply to Franti’s music.

“I used to believe that maybe the best way to change the world is to write songs filled with political anger,” Franti says. “I had just come out of a near-death operation for a ruptured appendix. I was so grateful to be alive. I decided I wanted to write songs expressing a love of life. It’s a simple thing that I overlooked.”

So Franti has called his latest album “The Sound of Sunshine,” which pretty accurately describes where he’s at now. “The emotion of it, and not just the mental side of it,” he says. “That’s where music is.”

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In truth, Franti doesn’t seem capable of abandoning the mental side of music. He grew up in the San Francisco Bay Area, fronting bands such as The Beatnigs and The Disposable Heroes of Hiphoprisy. Sure, they had the angry sonics of the day, rap, punk and industrial clatter. But social commentary was always at the forefront. Peace in the Middle East has long been one of Franti’s interests, and he intensely documented a trip there with a film called "I Know I’m Not Alone.

“I went to Iraq and figured I would sing 12 angry songs for people who were against war,” Franti says. “But they told me ‘We’re in a war. We want to laugh, dance, cry, clap our hands.’ I started thinking about the way joyful music can uplift people instead.

“Politicians all of the time are trying to make these political arguments. Right now, they’re turning gay marriage into a political argument. That’s wrong. What is there to argue about if everybody’s happy, everybody’s enjoying life? I’m happy to see an awakening with this dialogue, and not use it as an issue, as a way to get the voters to come out. It should be a human question.”

The 46-year-old Franti draws from his family experience when he talks of these human issues. “My father was black, my mother was white,” he says. “And my mom gave me up for adoption because she felt like her family would never accept me. In life, we should be encouraging families to live together. I know plenty of straight couples who aren’t happy. Who your parents are — straight, gay, black, white — is not a determining factor in your happiness.

“At the end of the day, everyone should be allowed to choose. At the end of the day, we will be on the right side of history. How is it right that a person can go and serve in the military and die, yet not be allowed to love the person of their choice? It doesn’t make any sense.”

Franti walks the walk, a vegan who rarely wears shoes.

“I feel like I have to do these things in my own life before I speak to other people,” he says.

And when he speaks, it’s difficult to argue that he’s wrong, because he’s seen a lot more of the world than most of us. A big concern now? “Climate change,” he says. “I was in East Timor, a country that’s always had a very dry season and a very wet season. But now the dry season is longer, and during the wet season it rains so hard, it floods. They used to raise chickens there. Now, because of the floods, they had to change to raising ducks. Because ducks float.”